G7 Africa G7 Directors at Politecnico
In the year of Italy's G7 presidency, on 9th October 9 2024, Politecnico di Milano hosted the proceedings of the Second G7 Africa Directors' Meeting, chaired by the Central Director for Sub-Saharan African Countries of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Giuseppe Mistretta.
The initiative provided an opportunity to discuss issues of major relevance to the African continent and areas of partnership between G7 and African countries.
The centrality of education and the role of the university was discussed by Professor Emanuela Colombo - the Rector's Delegate for Science Diplomacy - during her intervention that delved into the topic of research for development and institutional capacity building in the area of Science, Technology and Innovation through the tools of academic cooperation.
The event allowed to highlight the fruitful collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Politecnico di Milano for training initiatives in Africa and to announce the upcoming launch of “African Innovation Leadership. Developing Skills for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the Continent, an Executive Master's program created by Politecnico di Milano in partnership with the POLIMI Graduate School of Management and E4Impact Foundation, with the financial support of MAECI. The program aims to train 40 professionals from different African countries. Participants will be able to specialize on the topics of Entrepreneurship or Innovation Ecosystem Management, thus creating a new generation of innovation leaders that are part of a network.
The initiative leverages the results of the project “Emerging African Innovation Leaders. G7 Exchange and Training Program” launched during the Italian G7 presidency in 2017 during the Taormina Summit. This program, implemented by Politecnico di Milano in partnership with Politecnico di Torino, provided support to 21 young leaders from 7 African countries and, indirectly, through the engagement of the leaders themselves, trained more than 200 young innovators working in private companies, international organizations, ministry offices, civil society and academia.